Los Angeles: The Cleveland Guardians and the LA Dodgers find themselves in similar situations on this sunny day in LA. Both are in second place in their respective divisions. The Guardians trail the Minnesota Twins by 1 game in the American League Central Division and the Dodgers are 0.5 behind the San Diego Padres in the National League West.
Both teams see the need to be in first place before the All Star break. It will be interesting to see who comes away on top after this series. Cleveland made their case known last night in a come from behind 2-1 win in extra innings. They have now won their last 5 games while the Dodgers are 4-6 in their last 10 games.
This is a very good Guardian team lead by their All Star 3rd baseman José Ramírez, Bani, Dominican Republic, who is batting .305, 16 HR, 62 RBIs, 1.039 OPS. Their starter today is 27 year old Cal Quantrill 4-3, 3.38 ERA, who is in his second season in the big leagues.
The Dodgers send out Julio Urías 3-6, 2.80 ERA, to see if he can stop the bleeding. Urías has pitched well this year but his record doesn’t reflect just how good he has been. To have a record of 3-6 and an ERA of 2.80 it means your team is not scoring enough runs for you to win. For example, the “Boys in Blue” were just 1- for-13 with runners in scoring position and left a season-high tying 11 men on base last night in their 2-1 loss.
When Amed Rosario, Santo Domingo Centro, scored on a Max Muncy error in what should have been the last out, the thought was, here we go again for Urías. But in the bottom of that same second inning, the Dodgers showed how they can support their 20 game winner. 4 hits including a 2 run HR by Trea Turner made it a 3-1 game. Then more hitting a 2 more runs next inning.
Urías always shows amazing poise and concentration on the mound. No matter what the situation. He just goes out there and does his job.
As for Quantrill, 9 of he Dodger’s 10 hits after 5 innings were off of cutters. At what point do you think the pitching coach would call for a pitch other than a cutter? So after 5 runs and 10 hits, mercifully, he reached the magic hook number of 93 pitches and was sent to the clubhouse for bologna sandwich.
Urías finished the day with another outstanding performance. His line was, 6 inn, 2 hits, 1 run, 0 earned runs, 2 walks, 6 strikeouts. He threw 87 pitches, 61 for strikes. He improves to 4-6 on the year as the Dodgers pounded the Guardians 7-1. If the Dodgers can spot him more than 2-3 runs per game, like they did today, he will win, win, win.
Julio Pabón
June 19, 2022 at 9:40 am
Thanks William for this article on what must be one happy day for Julio for this fathers day and for many of his fans. This 2021 LatinoMVP NL Pitcher of the year needed this win. We look forward to presenting him with his award, hopefully in September for Hispanic Heritage Month.